Lisboa 5/17/08

I woke up in the morning, and walked over to where breakfast was being served. Breakfast in this hostel is above and beyond any other hostels or even most of the hotels I've encountered. They serve actual quality cereals ( not just corn flakes and oats), fresh juice, ham, cheese, and several different types of bread and pastries. The even better part about breakfast at this hostel is that when the meal hour is over, the food doesn't get put away, or thrown away. The left overs get wrapped up and set aside for people to pick at throughout the day. This gives me the opportunity to have my free breakfast, and then leftover bread and pastries for lunch, killing two birds with one stone.

After I'd finished breakfast, I sat down on the couch with my laptop to catch up on blogs. Peter and Kyle showed up a couple minutes later, still shaking off the final drinks from the pub last night. They sat down to breakfast and noticed me sitting over in the corner. After enjoying a quality meal, they sat down next to me, and we spent the next couple of hours exchanging funny youtube videos. We finally ended up watching a full comedy segment of a comedian (who's name I can't remember) who was by far the most offensive person I'd ever heard in all my life. He was funny, there's no doubt, but utterly offensive. His whole crowd (these were people who paid to see this guy specifically) actually fell silent during several occasions because of the things he had to say. I wouldn't recommend him if you're just looking for a good laugh, but in terms of pushing the limits of comedy, I've seen no one to match him.

When the show was over, I took a shower, and Kyle and Peter checked out of the hostel. They'd reserved a room at a different hostel for tonight, probably thinking there wouldn't be any room here on a saturday night, but when it turned out there was, it was too late to cancel the reservation. The good news was that they'd still be in town for a while, but of course, they wouldn't be at this hostel anymore. After saying goodbye, I figured I'd better get down to the train station today and figure out my exit strategy out of here. I wasn't sure how hard it was going to be to find a train going from here to San Sebastian. I figured, it's not exactly a main city in Spain, at least in terms of train routes, so I may have to figure out a route all the way through Madrid and then up to San Sebastian.

I began walking the long walk back to the train station. I hadn't realized just how far away from it I'd walked to find my hostel, when I'd originally come in from Madrid. It took quite a while, but I finally made it, and looked for where I might find information for international travels. One of the workers pointed me to a small room across the other end of one of the terminals, and so I headed in that direction to check it out. It was certainly the right spot. I noticed some form of the word "International" over one of the desks, and a cue of people waiting up front. I got in line and it began moving fairly quickly, and just as it got to the little old man directly in front of me, it stopped. This old man took forever! The two of them jabbered on and on for hours, it seemed, neither one of them apparently able to resolve the conflict. They each also moved maddeningly slow, which was positively frustrating. I was the last one in line, so after about half an hour of this, I finally just sat down at a bench nearby. I waited there for several more minutes, debating whether or not I should go and just come back later, but I was next in line, so it was hard to give that up after having waited here this long already. Even the old man looked flustered, and checked his watch often, and wiped his forehead. Finally, the issue was resolved and it was my turn at bat. I stepped up, and said "I need a ticket to San Sebastian for tomorrow." Immediately, the man at the desk went to work on his computer, and his old question was, "First, or second class?" "Second class," I told him, and he printed me out a ticket. "What?" I examined the ticket. It was direct from here to San Sebastian. The only train which left tomorrow, and it was a night train just like I wanted. It was all perfect, and It was so simple I was stunned. I didn't know traveling through countries could be as easy as all that. Most of my encounters with transportation on this trip have been hellish and complicated. I just naturally expected that's just how things work. I never imagined I could just say what I needed and get it. I had to check the ticket over a second and third time before it finally clicked it my mind that it was right. "Oh," I said baffled, "ok, well I guess that's it then." I then thanked him and walked away.

My whole ticket ordeal had worked out a lot quicker than I expected, so I found myself with extra time. I walked a different route back to the hostel, and explored some more regions I didn't get to yesterday. The city was having some kind of bicycle race, and particular roads were sectioned off to make the track. I stood with a crowd of people at one turn in the road and watched as the bikers came hauling past. I walked through the homes and backstreets, following the race track back to where it neared the hostel. I sat for a while more in the hostel catching up on blogs and loading pictures.

Later in the evening, my sister called me from back home. She and my whole family were sitting together, hiding on a cliff across some California beach, watching through binoculars as my cousin Abie was being proposed to by her boyfriend, Aaron. I heard the whole clan in the background excitedly clamoring, shushing, and laughing as they watched intently waiting for the moment to happen. I was bummed that I had to miss this monumental, and undoubtedly fun occasion, but I was glad I at least got to be there via telephone. When they called me, they assumed it would only be a couple minutes, but apparently Aaron took his sweet time doing it (I can hassle him because he's family now), so they had to call me back several minutes later. When they did call me back, it was just in time as Aaron got down on his knee and proposed. I made sure to have the whole moment fed to me in a play-by-play manner, although my sister and mother are not evidently as gifted in creative imagery, so I had to ask a whole lot of questions and fill in the gaps for myself. After the fact, I got to talk to Abie and Aaron, and congratulate them on their engagement. It was nice to have a chance to talk to Aaron, since I'd never actually met him before. He'd only just been dating Abie (I believe) since I've been away, and with such a short dating period I was astounded when the whole family accepted this news of proposal with such open arms.

I won't go too far into the interworkings of my family, because that would fill a whole other book in itself, perhaps several. However, believe me when I tell you that my family does not take relationships, and new entering members, lightly. We're a family deeply rooted in tradition, even to the point of being almost bureaucratic. Each new member must be tested and tried before even being allowed to seriously court a member of our family. However, this guy Aaron somehow bypassed all that. No, one's ever, in all the history of my family, ever bypassed the rigorous tests and judgements before being consented to propose. Although, I've talked to a lot of my family who all think he's absolutely wonderful. It's all a little strange to me, how he managed to escape all that, or at least delay it. He must really be an amazing guy to win over my entire family so quickly, It's rare that someone gains so much favor in my family after so little a time. It usually takes us a while of questioning before we decide it's ok to marry one of us. The little bit I got to talk to him, however, I liked him a lot too. He seemed confident, and passionate which is something I respond to. He also seemed like he had a sense of humor about him, which is wonderful for Abie because she's such a happy, fun-loving person. I truly wish the best for them. Although I still want to meet him, and know him a little better, I love my family very much, and will love the new members just the same. Welcome to the family Aaron.

After hanging up the phone, I decided to go out for a drink. I headed towards the pub Kyle, Peter and I went to last night, hoping I might run into them again, but I saw a couple other bars on the way and thought I might try something new (and a little more Portuguese).

I walked into a bar on a street around the corner. There were a couple of bouncers standing outside the front entrance. They were older than I was expecting; a little more worn in. I tipped my hat as I passed them on the way in, and none of them even moved. I got to the bottom of the stairs, and immediately wanted to leave. This was the sorriest excuse for a club I'd ever seen. It was a small room, with a tiny dance floor and two worn out old couples dancing to 90s hits while the colored disco ball spun polka dots all over the room. One man lay half dead in the corner, while another laid next to him not moving at all. Flies buzzed around the bar, and the floor still stank of last night's vomit. I strolled up to the bar, because now that everyone was looking at me, I couldn't just turn around a leave. So I played it off like I meant to walk in here, as if this were a crazy hip new club, and not an old retired crazy club for people with hip replacements. I bobbed my head to a song which was still not all that cool when I was 4, and sat down at the bar. Literally as soon as my butt hit the chair, I was approached by a 50-something wearing a low cut, short skirt dress, sweeping and swaying as she made eyes at me from across the room. She sat down on the seat beside me, and turned her chair so that she straddled mine between her leathery, overtanned legs. "Hi," she said in a low-toned voice, which almost sounded quite mannish, and I had to look her over real quick to make sure she wasn't; I immediately regretted that decision. "Hey," I said back, and then turned my body forward. I called the bartender over, and ordered a very large drink of the first thing I saw on tap. I avoided eye contact, but still she persisted. She caressed my leg with hers, and then made lip gestures to catch my attention. I looked over my shoulder, and she opened her mouth and slowly dragged her cracked tongue over her top lip. Her saliva made strings like a harp each time she mouthed a sexy gesture, and her eyes held large bags, which she tried to cover with makeup, but the excess makeup now dripped in globs down her face. Without a word, I slowly turned my head back forward, and drew my body inward. My beer came, and I took a king sized gulp. "Nice beard," she tried again, and made a hand gesture mimicking a beard. "Thank you," I looked for the bar tender. "Could I pay for this now?" I handed over the bill in exact change, and grabbed my beer. "It was nice to meet you," I told her as I untangled myself from her legs, and hurried out the door. On the way out, the bouncers stopped me, and wouldn't let me leave with my beer in my hand. I looked back at the door, and the horror which awaited me inside, and then I turned back to the bouncer. "Is there any way I could just drink it right here?" The bouncer shook his head, and running to save me came another bartender out of the doorway carrying a plastic cup I could take with me. He poured the beer into the cup, and I took it, thanked him sincerely, and then raised it to the bouncer as I passed by.

I went right from there, over to the pub where I knew it was safe. I sat down on a bar stool, and listened to some live Irish music as I drank my beer. A nice half-portugese couple pulled up the two seats on my right, and we all got talking. They were both living in San Francisco finishing up law school there, but were here visiting her family for a couple days. They told me of a couple bars on the opposite end of my hostel which play Fado music at night. Fado is the traditional Portuguese style of music, and they told me that if you want the true Portuguese experience, then you have to go to a Fado bar. They borrowed a map from the bartender, and showed me the area where they were all playing, but they warned me that they usually close pretty early, so they didn't know how much longer they'd be open. I thanked them for the advice, and then hurried over to that area as fast as I could. Unfortunately by the time I got there, all the places were just closing up. I walked around that neighborhood for a little bit hoping to find something still going, but then gave up and headed back to the hostel. I wished I would have known about that earlier, but I guess that's something I'll have to experience another time.

Tomorrow my train to San Sebastian leaves at 4:00pm and doesn't get in until 6:30 the next morning. It'll be a long trip, but I'm ready to get moving again.
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